Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan would succeed the present Chairman of the 34-member WHO Executive Board, Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan.
New Delhi: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who is leading India’s fight against COVID-19, is set to take charge as the chairman of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board on May 22, officials said on Tuesday.
Harsh Vardhan would succeed the present Chairman of the 34-member WHO Executive Board, Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan.
The recommendation to appoint India’s nominee to the executive board was approved by the 194-nation World Health Assembly on Tuesday, officials said.
Him taking over the post seems to be a formality after the decision that he will be India’s nominee as the WHO’s South-East Asia group had unanimously decided last year that for a three-year term beginning May, India would be elected to the executive board.
World Health Organisation has been heavily criticised by nations all over the world for not taking timely action in declaring the COVID-19 as a pandemic.
The total cases in India surged to 1,06,750 including over 42,000 cured/discharged or migrated and 3,303 deaths amid lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In the past 24 hours, 140 casualties were recorded.
A staggering 5,611 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours, highest so far.
Maharashtra, the worst affected state by the virus, reported 37,136 with over 1,200 deaths. the state witnessed ver 2,000 for the third straight day.
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Across the country, at least 42,298 patients have cured so far the recovery rate stood at 39%.
Currently, there are 61,149 active COVID-19 patients in the country.
India is the 11th most-affected nation in terms of the total number of confirmed cases, overtaking China.
A total of 280 government laboratories in the country is conducting tests for the novel coronavirus, the Indian Council of Medical Research has said.
213 countries or territories all over the world have been affected by the highly infectious novel coronavirus.
Globally, the total number of COVID-19 cases topped 4,900,000 while the death toll crossed 323,000, as per the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
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